If you are still a Sharks believer, here is the most encouraging sight that I witnessed with my own eyes in Pittsburgh: the Sharks players, too, truly do believe they can come back and win the Stanley Cup Final against the Penguins.

That doesn”t mean it will happen. Trailing 3-2 in the series, the Sharks still have a mountain to climb, beginning with Game 6 at SAP Center on Sunday. But the mountain trail grew a little less potholed or steep after Thursday”s victory at Consol Energy Center.

After decades of covering playoffs in every sport, I have learned to respect the words that players say after games but also to realize that players are going to say what they think they should say. More telling is their body language, or the way they say the words, or the subtle messages they sometimes send.

Sharks defenseman Paul Martin, as you may know, spent the seasons from 2010-2015 with the Penguins before signing as a free agent with San Jose last summer. Martin is a respected pro with the standard solid-and-mannerly personality of a Minnesota native. He”s certainly no trash talker. So one of Martin”s remarks, buried amidst the usual happy-to-win postgame quotes, was interesting.

“It”s good to let them know we”re still here,” Martin said of the Penguins. “We played them pretty well at SAP . . . I”ve been over there when they”ve lost 3-1 leads and lost series.”

Specifically, Martin was referring to 2011 and 2014 when the Penguins blew 3-1 advantages against Tampa Bay and the New York Rangers.

Followers of the beloved Los Tiburones tend to forget that their team is not the only one with a recent haunted past of blowing series leads. The Penguins have their own history.

And plainly, Martin was subtly reminding people of that history.

The Penguins can”t be getting overly nervous yet. To fail to grasp the Cup, they must lose Sunday and then go back home and also lose a Game 7 in a building where they have played impressively. That includes their energy and compete level of Thursday, when they again spent a lot of time in their offensive zone and fired those 46 shots at Sharks goalie Martin Jones, who saved all but two of them.

Afterward, the Penguins tried to send a message that they weren”t frustrated and remained in control. Sidney Crosby seemed to bend over backwards looking to not overly praise Jones. Crosby even said: “I feel like there were some pucks there that beat him that didn”t go in.”

Translation: Jones was somewhat lucky.

The final moments of the game were also notable, also from Crosby”s end. He has played great in the series and whenever the Sharks have tried to rattle him with an extra shove or hard hit or scuffles after whistles, Crosby has skated away and refused to be drawn into any extracurriculars.

Not so at the end Thursday. Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic used his stick and perhaps some pointed words to get under Crosby”s skin and he responded with some physicality. Linesmen had to separate the two men. Crosby and Vlasic have been Canadian Olympic teammates and have often spoken of each other with respect. But this is for the Cup. And now Crosby has shown himself to be irritated.

Yes, this is getting interesting. Jones was not the only impressive Shark in Game 5. The entire team played its best opening minutes of the Final, attacking the net and scoring those two early goals. Then, after Pittsburgh quickly tied it back up, the Sharks of 2016 once more proved they are not the Sharks of yore who often would sag under those circumstances. Melker Karlsson scored a goal before the end of the first period and the Sharks made it hold up. Jones was stunning through certain stretches of the second and third periods when he stifled Pittsburgh shot after Pittsburgh shot. The post was his friend a couple of times, yes. But the 44 saves were the most ever by a goalie on a team facing elimination in a Cup Final. So it wasn”t all luck.

You just can”t count on Jones to do that two more times. His teammates know it.

“He was great to watch tonight,” Sharks defenseman Justin Braun said of Jones. “But we”ve got to give him a little more help.”

The site of Game 6 will help. Given the last line change, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer can choose to avoid certain matchups if he wishes-or set up other matchups that he wants. That means the Sharks” third defensive pair of Brenden Dillon and Roman Polak, who have had some challenging shifts in the series to say the least, can be kept away from Crosby”s line or Evgeni Malkin”s line. Of course, that might mean they have to face Nick Bonino”s line, which has caused the Sharks big trouble.

The Penguins aren”t going to be intimidated at the opening faceoff Sunday, that”s for sure. But if the Sharks take another early lead or stay in a tie game into the third period . . . well, the pressure will mount on Pittsburgh. The Penguins understand what a roll of the dice a Game 7 can be, no matter where it”s played. They don”t want one. And if the Sharks do win Game 6, who has the momentum? And with the older roster, who is helped the most by these two-day rests between games that now are the rule?

The Sharks did walk out of Pittsburgh”s building with a little more swagger in their step. I definitely sensed that. And rookie Shark centerman Chris Tierney did not deny that Jones” performance at least potentially might have turned around the series.

“Yeah, I think so,” Tierney said. “We”re excited to get back home and try to force a Game 7 now. We just want to take it one game at a time. It”s the same kind of mentality we”re going back home with.”

And here”s what Joe Thornton said: “They know we”re not going to quit. They”re going to show up for Game 6 and so are we. Both teams are here for a reason.”